Pain relief is like Christ dying for my sins – it means that I shall never feel the full effect of my sins…
My father recently had some orthopaedic surgery done.
As a result of that surgery, he was encouraged to participate in some rather gruelling physiotherapy immediately following the surgery.
The physiotherapy involved several different things. Some things were simple like moving his feet up and down. Others required more effort like walking along a hallway, and still other activities involved him sitting and standing and moving around in a way that helped him with movement so that he would be able to move himself and manipulate his body in various ways so that he could continue to function at home once he was able to return there following the surgery and his rehabilitation.
There were a few surprising observations that I made while I watched this process. Firstly, the activities started as very small. Little goals of moving feet or simply standing up, soon became much larger goals. In this way, my father was not overwhelmed by the work ahead of him and could instead focus on achieving little goals and therefore seeing small results to increase his confidence in the process. The second thing that I observed was that the treatment required my father the chose to participate. Nobody could force him to stand up and walk – though he could be helped to do this – instead, people had to wait until he was willing to actually trust in the ability of his own body and get moving in the way that he was being directed. And thirdly, the physiotherapy – and the recovery in general – was extremely painful. And even despite the pain, my father had to stand up and get moving or he would never be able to move to the next stage of his recover. In order to make this more palatable for him, he was provided with pain relief during the recovery so that he would not be overwhelmed with pain and would be able to continue to participate in the process…
And I have been thinking about that whole process of recovery today.
You see, it reminds me of the gift of work that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden after the fall of humankind…
“To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’” (Genesis 3:17-19).
And when I was younger I thought this work – this sweat – was a punishment. But it was not. Instead, it was an opportunity to participate in the redemption of the self – to elevate humankind to be God-like. For it is GOD ALONE who can save us. It is GOD ALONE who is responsible for our salvation, and He does that through Christ, who worked (through His suffering) for our sins.
And I have been thinking about that today as I reflect on my father’s small goals – which are like the small spiritual goals I should set for myself to motivate myself. And I think about that today as I think about my choice to participate in my own redemption by following the Holy Will of God just as my father chose to participate in his own recovery. And I think about that today when I think about that pain relief that my father took. For this is like Christ’s dying for my sins – He did that so that I would never feel the full effect of my pain – Christ felt it for me. And He did it because He loves me. And what could possibly be more wonderful than that?
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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